Data transmission and rendering techniques implemented over a client-server system

ABSTRACT

A technique is disclosed for generating formatted information for display on a computer system. The computer system may be configured to include at least one interface for communicating with a server computer system. A request is sent from the computer system to the server system. According to one embodiment, the request may correspond to an HTTP request for information relating to a specific HTML page or web page. A response is then received from the server system. According to one embodiment, the response includes response information comprising embedded instructions and data. The embedded instructions may include instructions for using the data to generate formatted markup information for display on the computer system. The embedded instructions are then executed on the data to thereby generate formatted markup information for display on the computer system. According to a specific embodiment, the formatted markup information corresponds to HTML data to be rendered for display on the computer system.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/792,400, filed Feb. 22, 2001 entitled: “Data transmission and rendering techniques implemented over a client-server system,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes, and which application claims priority under 35 USC 119(e) from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/247,392 (Attorney Docket No. WVANP010P) filed Nov. 10, 2000, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. The present application also relates to copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/568,603 (Attorney Docket No. WVANP001), filed on May 10, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,177,825, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to data networks, and more specifically to data transmission and rendering techniques to be implemented in a client-server system.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a typical client-server system 100, wherein the client device 102 and the server device 106 communicate with each other via the Internet 104.

In most Internet-based client-server systems, when a client process 102 desires specific information from a remote server (such as, for example, a web page), the client process transmits an HTTP request to the server 106 (via Internet 104), and the server responds by transmitting an HTTP response to the client which includes HTML data. A browser on the client machine renders the HTML data and displays it to the user in the form of an HTML (i.e. web) page. This entire process may be initiated by the user at the click of a button, such as, for example, by clicking a mouse button on a URL link. However, the desired information will typically not be displayed instantaneously. Rather, the user typically is required to wait a time interval (referred to as the end-user experienced response time) until the desired information is retrieved from the server system and displayed on the client machine. This delay is undesirable. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that it is generally desirable to reduce the end-user experienced response time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to different embodiments of the present invention, a method and computer program product are disclosed for generating formatted information for display on a computer system. The computer system may be configured to include at least one interface for communicating with a server computer system. A request is sent from the computer system to the server system. According to one embodiment, the request may correspond to an HTTP request for information relating to a specific HTML page or web page. A response is then received from the server system. According to one embodiment, the response includes response information comprising embedded instructions and data. The embedded instructions may include instructions for using the data to generate formatted markup information for display on the computer system. The embedded instructions are then executed on the data to thereby generate formatted markup information for display on the computer system. According to a specific embodiment, the formatted markup information corresponds to HTML data to be rendered for display on the computer system.

Other embodiments are directed to a method and computer program product for generating formatted information for display on a computer system. The computer system may be configured to include at least one interface for communicating with a server computer system. A request for desired information is received from the computer system. According to one embodiment, the request may correspond to an HTTP request for information relating to a specific HTML page or web page. A response is then sent to the computer system. According to one embodiment, the response includes response information comprising embedded instructions and data. The embedded instructions may include instructions for using the data to generate formatted markup information for display on the computer system. According to a specific embodiment, the formatted markup information corresponds to HTML data to be rendered for display on the computer system.

An alternate embodiment of the present invention is directed to a system for generating formatted information for display on a computer system. The system comprises at least one CPU, memory, and at least one interface for communicating with a server computer system. The system may be configured to send a request to the server system via the at least one interface. According to one embodiment, the request may correspond to an HTTP request for information relating to a specific HTML page or web page. The system may further be configured to receive a response from the server system, wherein the response includes response information comprising embedded instructions and data. The embedded instructions may include instructions for using the data to generate formatted markup information for display on the computer system. The system may be further configured to execute the embedded instructions on the data to thereby generate formatted markup information for display on the computer system. According to a specific embodiment, the formatted markup information corresponds to HTML data to be rendered for display on the computer system.

Another embodiment of the present invention is directed to a system for generating formatted information for display on a computer system. The system comprises at least one CPU, memory, and at least one interface for communicating with a client computer system. The system may be configured to receive a request for desired information from the client computer. According to one embodiment, the request may correspond to an HTTP request for information relating to a specific HTML page or web page. The system may further be configured or designed to send a response to the client computer, wherein the response includes response information comprising embedded instructions and data. The embedded instructions may include instructions for using the data to generate formatted markup information for display on the client system. According to a specific embodiment, the formatted markup information corresponds to HTML data to be rendered for display on the client system.

Additional objects, features and advantages of the various aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of its preferred embodiments, which description should be taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a conventional client-server system 100.

FIG. 2A shows an example of an HTML page which may be used to illustrate the data transmission and rendering techniques of the present invention.

FIG. 2B shows an example of conventional HTML source code which may be provided by a conventional server to a conventional client device in response to an HTTP request.

FIG. 2C illustrates a specific embodiment of the source code which may be provided by a server to a client device in accordance with a specific embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram illustrating how information is transmitted between a client system and a server system in accordance with a specific embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a network device 60 suitable for implementing the data transmission and rendering techniques of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

This application describes various features associated with data transmission and rendering techniques to be implemented in a client-server system. It will be appreciated, therefore, that the data transmission and rendering techniques described in this application merely define specific embodiments of the data transmission and rendering techniques of the present invention. Alternate embodiments of the data transmission and rendering techniques of the present invention may be derived by modifying various features of the specific embodiment described herein. Such modifications will be apparent to one having ordinary skill in the art.

As described previously in the Background Section of this application, it is generally desirable to reduce the end-user experienced response time as much as possible. In this regard, it will be appreciated that a combination of different factors may contribute to the overall end-user experienced response time, such as, for example, the server response time, communication latency, download time, client processing speed, etc. The server response time indicates how quickly a server is able to respond to a particular request, such as, for example, an HTTP request. The communication latency represents the start up costs associated with the connection between the client and the server. Typically, each time the user clicks on a particular link in a web browser application, a connection to a server is established, which incurs another latency period. The client processing speed corresponds to how quickly the client (or browser machine) is able to render the page as it receives it. The download time represents an amount of time that it takes to download a requested page once the request has been received and processed by the server. This value may be significantly affected by the connection speed that has been established between the client and the server.

With the limited connection speeds that are typically established between the client and the server, one of the more significant factors in the end-user experienced response time is the size of the page being downloaded. Thus, it will be appreciated that, by reducing the amount of bytes to be downloaded from the server process, the end-user experienced response time may also be reduced.

FIG. 2A shows an example of an HTML page which may be used to illustrate the data transmission and rendering techniques of the present invention. The HTML page 200 of FIG. 2A represents the web page which is displayed to a user of the client device 102. In the example of FIG. 2A, it is assumed that the web page 200 represents a phone book page which includes personalized contact information specific to that user. For example, a first entry 202 on page 200 provides personalized information for a contact named Bryan. A second entry 204 on page 200 provides personalized information for a contact named Dean. A third entry 206 on page 200 provides personalized information for a contact named Ajit. A fourth entry 208 on page 200 provides personalized information for a contact named Narasimha.

FIG. 2B shows an example of conventional HTML source code which may be provided by the server 106 to the client device 102, and subsequently used by a conventional web browser (such as, for example, Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer) on the client device for rendering the web page 200. As illustrated in FIG. 2B, each entry 212, 214, 216 and 218 in the HTML source code corresponds to a respective entry 202, 204, 206, 208 displayed on web page 200. Moreover, it will be appreciated that each character of text which is displayed on the web page 200 is included in the HTML source code of FIG. 2B.

FIG. 2C illustrates a specific embodiment of modified source code which may be provided by the server 106 to the client device 102, and subsequently used for rendering the HTML page 200 in accordance with a specific embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2C, the source code includes an embedded instruction portion 222 and an embedded data portion 224. In the example of FIG. 2C, it is assumed that the embedded instruction portion 222 is implemented using a scripting language such as, for example, JavaScript, and that the client web browser is capable of executing the embedded instructions. When compared to the source code of FIG. 2B, it can be seen at the source code of FIG. 2C includes fewer bytes of information. For example, it can be seen that the characters “If you want to send a fax, please use” are repeated four (4) times in FIG. 2B, but are included only once in FIG. 2C. The data portion 224 includes all the customized data which will eventually be rendered into customized HTML data.

It will be appreciated that the actual number of bytes to be transferred from the server 106 to the client device 102 in FIG. 2B is significantly greater than that of FIG. 2C. More specifically, the byte size of the data represented by FIG. 2B is 1,730 bytes, whereas the byte size of the data represented by FIG. 2C is 960 bytes.

Thus, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, rather than the server 106 sending the entire HTML source code (as shown in FIG. 2B) to the client machine 102, the server may transmit embedded instructions and data (as shown in FIG. 2C) to the client machine, wherein the embedded instructions and data are processed at the client machine to thereby generate HTML data to be rendered for displaying to a user.

FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram illustrating how information is transmitted between a client system 102 and a server system 106 in accordance with a specific embodiment of the present invention. It will be appreciated that the flow diagram of FIG. 3 merely represents an example of a specific embodiment of how the technique of the present invention may be used to reduce the amount of actual bytes transferred from a server device to a client device.

Referring to FIG. 3, it is initially assumed that the client transmits (1) an HTTP request to the server 106. For purposes of illustration, it is assumed that the HTTP request corresponds to a request to retrieve web page 200 of FIG. 2A. The server responds (2) by transmitting an HTTP response to the client machine. According to a specific embodiment, the HTTP response includes embedded instructions and data such as that shown, for example in FIG. 2C. According to a specific implementation, the embedded data may be in ASCII text format. The embedded data may also be in other forms, such as, for example, Unicode. Additionally, according to specific embodiments, the embedded instructions may correspond to scripting language which can be interpreted by a browser or other rendering program, or alternatively, may correspond to executable code, such as, for example, a plug-in, which may be executed on at the client system 102. In the example of FIG. 3, it is assumed that the embedded instructions are implemented using JavaScript.

Upon receiving the HTTP response, the client machine may execute (3) the JavaScript on the data provided in the HTTP response to thereby generate HTML code for rendering on the client machine. According to a specific embodiment, this action may be performed by a browser application that has been configured or designed to interpret scripting instruction language such as, for example, JavaScript or JSCRIPT. Alternatively, the embedded instructions may correspond to executable code which is executed on the client system using the data from the HTTP response to generate the HTML code. A web browser or other rendering program on the client machine may than use the generated HTML code to render (4) the HTML page to be displayed on the client machine's display device.

It will be appreciated that, according to a specific embodiment of the present invention, the response transmitted from the server 106 to the client system 102 may not always include both embedded instructions and embedded data. In one implementation, the particular request transmitted by the client system to the server may be used by the server determine whether the response to the client should include only data, or both data and instructions.

By way of illustration, it is assumed that the server 106 has already transmitted a first response to client 102 which includes embedded instructions 222 and data 224 as shown in FIG. 2C. Further, it is assumed that a browser program has executed the instructions 222 on the data 224 to generate HTML data, which the browser program then rendered for display as shown in FIG. 2A. Additionally, in this example, it is assumed that the rendered page includes two additional links (not illustrated in FIG. 2A). The first link is displayed as “VIEW CALENDAR”, and the second link is displayed as “NEXT PAGE”. If the user clicks on the NEXT PAGE link, the client system will send a request to the server to retrieve the next page of contact information. When the server receives this request, it may determine from the request that it need only send the data portion relating to the next page of contact information. The client system has previously received the embedded instructions 222 for rendering the next page data. Thus, when the client system subsequently receives a response from the server which includes the next page data portion (but does not include the embedded instructions portion), the client machine may execute the previously received instructions 222 on the newly received data to thereby render the next page of contact information for display to the user.

Alternatively, if the user clicks on the VIEW CALENDAR link, the client system will send a request to the server to retrieve calendar information (which is assumed to be displayed using a different format than that shown in FIG. 2A). When the server receives this request, it may determine from the request that it needs to send both new data (i.e. calendar data) and new instructions (for rendering the calendar data) to the client system. Upon receiving the response from the server, the client system may then execute new instructions on the calendar data to thereby generate HTML data to be rendered for display to the user.

From the above description, it will be appreciated that the data transmission and rendering techniques of the present invention may be used to reduce the amount of actual bytes transferred from a server system (e.g., 106, FIG. 1) to a client system (e.g., 102, FIG. 1) in response to a specific client request. In this way the technique of the present invention may significantly improve the end-user experienced response time by reducing the amount of actual bytes which need to be received at the client machine, for example, during a single request-response transaction. Moreover, it will be appreciated that the technique of the present invention may be utilized in environments where connection speed is a significant factor in the end-user experienced response time.

Generally, the data transmission and rendering techniques of the present invention may be implemented on software and/or hardware. For example, they can be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate user process, in a library package bound into network applications, on a specially constructed machine, or on a network interface card. In a specific embodiment of this invention, the technique of the present invention is implemented in software such as an operating system or in an application running on an operating system.

A software or software/hardware hybrid implementation of the data transmission and rendering technique of this invention may be implemented on a general-purpose programmable machine selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in memory. Such programmable machine may be a computer system or network device such as that shown in FIG. 4 of the drawings. The network device may have multiple network interfaces including, for example, frame relay, Ethernet, ISDN, etc. Specific examples of such a network device include routers and servers. A general architecture for some of these machines will appear from the description given below. In an alternative embodiment, the data transmission and rendering technique of this invention may be implemented on a general-purpose network host machine such as a personal computer or workstation. Further, the invention may be at least partially implemented on a card (e.g., an interface card) for a network device or a general-purpose computing device.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a network device 60 suitable for implementing the data transmission and rendering techniques of the present invention includes a master central processing unit (CPU) 62, interfaces 68, and a bus 67 (e.g., a PCI bus). When acting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, the CPU 62 may be responsible for implementing specific functions associated with the functions of a desired network device. For example, when configured as a client network device, the CPU 62 may be responsible for such tasks as transmitting and receiving information to and from other network devices, analyzing received information, executing JavaScript, generating HTML data using non-HTML data received from another network device, rendering HTML data for display to a user, etc. The CPU 62 preferably accomplishes all these functions under the control of software including an operating system (e.g., Windows NT), and any appropriate applications software.

CPU 62 may include one or more processors 63 such as a processor from the Motorola family of microprocessors or the MIPS family of microprocessors. In an alternative embodiment, processor 63 is specially designed hardware for controlling the operations of network device 60. In a specific embodiment, a memory 61 (such as non-volatile RAM and/or ROM) also forms part of CPU 62. However, there are many different ways in which memory could be coupled to the system. Memory block 61 may be used for a variety of purposes such as, for example, caching and/or storing data, programming instructions, etc.

The interfaces 68 are typically provided as interface cards (sometimes referred to as “line cards”). Generally, they control the sending and receiving of data packets over the network and sometimes support other peripherals used with the network device 60. Among the interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relay interfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces, and the like. In addition, various very high-speed interfaces may be provided such as fast Ethernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, ATM interfaces, HSSI interfaces, POS interfaces, FDDI interfaces and the like. Generally, these interfaces may include ports appropriate for communication with the appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include an independent processor and, in some instances, volatile RAM. The independent processors may control such communications intensive tasks as packet switching, media control and management. By providing separate processors for the communications intensive tasks, these interfaces allow the master microprocessor 62 to efficiently perform routing computations, network diagnostics, security functions, etc.

Although the system shown in FIG. 4 illustrates one specific network device of the present invention, it is by no means the only network device architecture on which the present invention can be implemented. For example, an architecture having a single processor that handles communications as well as routing computations, etc. is often used. Further, other types of interfaces and media could also be used with the network device.

Regardless of network device's configuration, it may employ one or more memories or memory modules (such as, for example, memory block 65) configured to store data, program instructions for the general-purpose network operations and/or other information relating to the functionality of the data transmission and rendering techniques described herein. The program instructions may control the operation of an operating system and/or one or more applications, for example. The memory or memories may also be configured to include data structures which store data received from other network devices, locally generated HTML data, rendered HTML pages, etc.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed to implement the systems/methods described herein, the present invention relates to machine readable media that include program instructions, state information, etc. for performing various operations described herein. Examples of machine-readable media include, but are not limited to, magnetic storage media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical media such as floptical disks; and hardware devices that are specially configured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-only memory devices (ROM) and random access memory (RAM). The invention may also be embodied in transmission media such as a carrier wave travelling over an appropriate medium such as airwaves, optical lines, electric lines, etc. Examples of program instructions include both machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher level code that may be executed by the computer using an interpreter.

Although several preferred embodiments of this invention have been described in detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to these precise embodiments, and at various changes and modifications may be effected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope of spirit of the invention as described herein. 

1. A computer-implemented method for facilitating ordering items by a customer via a network, the method comprising: sending, by the first computer, a request to a second computer via the network for displaying formatted markup information on the first computer; receiving, by the first computer, a response from the second computer, the response including instructions and data; and executing, by the first computer, the instructions on the data to thereby generate formatted markup information for display on the first computer, wherein the byte size of the instructions and data is less than the byte size of the formatted markup information, which, in turn, improves a response time of the first computer, and wherein the method generates formatted markup information for display on the first computer that includes an item for the customer to select by placing a customer order via the first computer, and wherein after the customer has placed the order, the method generates formatted markup information for display on the first computer that includes information regarding the order status of the customer order.
 2. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the order status will indicate that the order has been shipped if the order has been shipped.
 3. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein if at least one ordered item has not been fulfilled in the order, the order status will include an adjustment regarding the order.
 4. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the order is fulfilled in a distribution center, wherein a container is transported in the distribution center to have at least one item in the order put in the container, wherein the method further comprises keeping track of the at least one item in the container as the container is transported in the distribution center, and wherein the container is loaded into a vehicle to ship the order to the customer.
 5. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 4, wherein the at least one item has an identifier, and wherein the identifier of the at least one item is scanned by a scanner before the item is put in the container.
 6. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 4, wherein the container has an identifier, and wherein the method further comprises keeping track of the container via the identifier of the container, as the container is transported in the distribution center with the at least one item inside.
 7. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 6, wherein the identifier of the container is scanned by a scanner in the distribution center.
 8. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 4, wherein the container is associated with the order.
 9. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 4, wherein the method further comprises keeping track of the at least one item being loaded into the vehicle to be shipped to the customer.
 10. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 4, wherein the container has an identifier, wherein the container is tracked via the identifier, and wherein the method further comprises keeping track of the container being loaded into the vehicle to be shipped to the customer.
 11. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the order is shipped to the customer via a vehicle, wherein the vehicle has an identifier, and wherein the method further comprises keeping track of the identifier of the vehicle associated with shipping the order.
 12. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein a plurality of items in the order are in a container to be delivered to the customer, and wherein the container has an identifier, and wherein the method further comprises keeping track of the identifier associated to the order as the order is shipped to the customer.
 13. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 12, wherein if the customer keeps the container when the order is delivered to the customer, the method further comprises keeping track of the container being kept by the customer.
 14. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 13, wherein the identifier of the container is scanned to keep track of the container being kept by the customer.
 15. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 13, wherein at the time of the delivery of the next order to the customer, the method further comprises crediting a deposit credit to an account of the customer via the identifier of the container if the container is picked up from the customer.
 16. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein at the time delivery is made to the customer, a piece of information is scanned by a scanner to keep a record of the one or more items in the order delivered to the customer.
 17. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 16, wherein the piece of information is kept track of together with the time when delivery is made to the customer.
 18. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 16, wherein each item delivered to the customer is scanned to keep a record of the items in the order delivered to the customer.
 19. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the order is delivered to the customer, wherein at the time delivery is made to the customer, the customer rejects one of the items in the order, and wherein the method further comprises keeping record of the one of the items being rejected by the customer.
 20. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 19, wherein the one of the items being rejected by the customer has an identifier, and wherein the identifier is scanned to keep record of the one of the items being rejected by the customer.
 21. A computer-implemented method for facilitating ordering items by a customer via a network, the method comprising: sending, by the first computer, a request to a second computer via the network for displaying formatted markup information on the first computer; receiving, by the first computer, a response from the second computer, the response including instructions and data; and executing, by the first computer, the instructions on the data to thereby generate formatted markup information for display on the first computer, wherein the byte size of the instructions and data is less than the byte size of the formatted markup information, which, in turn, improves a response time of the first computer, wherein the method generates formatted markup information for display on the first computer that includes an item for the customer to select by placing a customer order via the first computer, wherein after the customer has placed the order, the method generates formatted markup information for display on the first computer that includes information regarding the customer order, wherein the order is fulfilled in a distribution center, wherein a container is transported in the distribution center to have at least one item in the order put in the container, wherein the method further comprises keeping track of the at least one item in the container as the container is transported in the distribution center, and wherein the container is loaded into a vehicle to ship the order to the customer.
 22. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: sending, by the first computer, another request to the second computer via the network for displaying additional formatted markup information on the first computer; receiving, by the first computer, another response from the second computer, the another response including another set of data; and executing, by the first computer, the instructions on the another set of data to thereby generate the additional formatted markup information for display on the first computer. 